3.1     Enter MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO and men.

BENVOLIO     I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire;
The day is hot, the Capels are abroad,
And if we meet we shall not ‘scape a brawl,
For now these hot days is the mad blood stirring.
MERCUTIO     Thou art like one of these fellows that, when	5
he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword
upon the table and says ‘God send me no need of
thee!’ and by the operation of the second cup draws
him on the drawer, when indeed there is no need.
BENVOLIO     Am I like such a fellow?	10
MERCUTIO     Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy
mood as any in Italy; and as soon moved to be moody,
and as soon moody to be moved.
BENVOLIO     And what to?
MERCUTIO     Nay, and there were two such, we should	15
have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou?
Why, thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair
more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. Thou
wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no
other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What	20
eye but such an eye would spy out such a quarrel? Thy
head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and
yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for
quarrelling. Thou hast quarrelled with a man for
coughing in the street, because he hath wakened thy	25
dog that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall
out with a tailor for wearing his new doublet before
Easter; with another for tying his new shoes with old
riband? And yet thou wilt tutor me from quarrelling!
BENVOLIO     And I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any	30
man should buy the fee simple of my life for an hour
and a quarter.
MERCUTIO     The fee simple! O simple!
Enter TYBALT, PETRUCHIO and others.
BENVOLIO     By my head, here comes the Capulets.
MERCUTIO     By my heel, I care not.	35
TYBALT     Follow me close, for I will speak to them.
Gentlemen, good e’en: a word with one of you.
MERCUTIO     And but one word with one of us? Couple it
with something, make it a word and a blow.
TYBALT     You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, and	40
you will give me occasion.
MERCUTIO     Could you not take some occasion without
giving?
TYBALT     Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo.
MERCUTIO     us	45
minstrels? And thou make minstrels of us, look to hear
nothing but discords. Here’s my fiddlestick, here’s
that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort!
BENVOLIO     We talk here in the public haunt of men.
Either withdraw unto some private place,	50
Or reason coldly of your grievances,
Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us.
MERCUTIO
Men’s eyes were made to look, and let them gaze.
I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I.
Enter ROMEO.
TYBALT
Well, peace be with you, sir, here comes my man.	55
MERCUTIO
But I’ll be hang’d, sir, if he wear your livery.
Marry, go before to field, he’ll be your follower.
Your worship in that sense may call him ‘man’.
TYBALT     Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford
No better term than this: thou art a villain.	60
ROMEO     Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting: villain am I none,
Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not.
TYBALT     Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries	65
That thou hast done me, therefore turn and draw.
ROMEO     I do protest I never injuried thee,
But love thee better than thou canst devise
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love.
And so, good Capulet, which name I tender	70
As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.
MERCUTIO     O calm, dishonourable, vile submission:
Alla stoccata carries it away! [He draws.]
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?
TYBALT     What wouldst thou have with me?	75
MERCUTIO     Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your
nine lives. That I mean to make bold withal, and, as
you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the
eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by
the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere	80
it be out.
TYBALT     I am for you. [He draws.]
ROMEO     Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
MERCUTIO     Come sir, your passado. [They fight.]
ROMEO     Draw, Benvolio, beat down their weapons.	85
Gentlemen, for shame, forbear this outrage.
Tybalt, Mercutio! The Prince expressly hath
Forbid this bandying in Verona streets.
Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio!
[Tybalt under Romeo’s arm thrusts Mercutio in.]
A FOLLOWER     Away Tybalt.	90
Exit Tybalt with his followers.
MERCUTIO     I am hurt.
A plague o’ both your houses. I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing?
BENVOLIO     What, art thou hurt?
MERCUTIO
Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, ’tis enough.
Where is my page? Go villain, fetch a surgeon.	95
Exit Page.
ROMEO     Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much.
MERCUTIO     No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as
a church door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask for
me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man. I am
peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o’ both	100
your houses. Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to
scratch a man to death. A braggart, a rogue, a villain,
that fights by the book of arithmetic – why the devil
came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.
ROMEO     I thought all for the best.	105
MERCUTIO     Help me into some house, Benvolio,
Or I shall faint. A plague o’ both your houses,
They have made worms’ meat of me.
I have it, and soundly too. Your houses!
Exit Mercutio with Benvolio.
ROMEO     This gentleman, the Prince’s near ally,	110
My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt
In my behalf – my reputation stain’d
With Tybalt’s slander – Tybalt that an hour
Hath been my cousin. O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate	115
And in my temper soften’d valour’s steel.
Enter BENVOLIO.
BENVOLIO     O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio is dead,
That gallant spirit hath aspir’d the clouds
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
ROMEO     This day’s black fate on mo days doth depend:	120
This but begins the woe others must end.
Enter TYBALT.
BENVOLIO     Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
ROMEO     Again, in triumph, and Mercutio slain.
Away to heaven respective lenity,
And fire-ey’d fury be my conduct now!	125
Now, Tybalt, take the ‘villain’ back again
That late thou gav’st me, for Mercutio’s soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company.
Either thou, or I, or both must go with him.	130
TYBALT
Thou wretched boy, that didst consort him here,
Shalt with him hence.
ROMEO     This shall determine that.
[They fight. Tybalt falls.]
BENVOLIO     Romeo, away, be gone,
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain!
Stand not amaz’d. The Prince will doom thee death	135
If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away!
ROMEO     O, I am fortune’s fool.
BENVOLIO     Why dost thou stay?
Exit Romeo.
Enter Citizens.
CITIZEN     Which way ran he that kill’d Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
BENVOLIO     There lies that Tybalt.
CITIZEN     Up, sir, go with me.	140
I charge thee in the Prince’s name obey.
Enter PRINCE, MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their wives and all.
PRINCE     Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
BENVOLIO     O noble Prince, I can discover all
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,	145
That slew thy kinsman brave Mercutio.
LADY CAPULET
Tybalt, my cousin, O my brother’s child!
O Prince, O husband, O, the blood is spill’d
Of my dear kinsman. Prince, as thou art true,
For blood of ours shed blood of Montague.	150
O cousin, cousin.
PRINCE     Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?
BENVOLIO
Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay.
Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urg’d withal	155
Your high displeasure. All this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow’d,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio’s breast,	160
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
Retorts it. Romeo, he cries aloud	165
‘Hold, friends! Friends part!’ and swifter than his tongue
His agile arm beats down their fatal points
And ’twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio; and then Tybalt fled,	170
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain’d revenge,
And to’t they go like lightning: for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain,
And as he fell did Romeo turn and fly.	175
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.
LADY CAPULET     He is a kinsman to the Montague.
Affection makes him false. He speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife
And all those twenty could but kill one life.	180
I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give.
Romeo slew Tybalt. Romeo must not live.
PRINCE     Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio.
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MONTAGUE
Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio’s friend;	185
His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.
PRINCE     And for that offence
Immediately we do exile him hence.
I have an interest in your hearts’ proceeding;
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding.	190
But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine
That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.
Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste,	195
Else, when he is found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will.
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
Exeunt.

3.2     Enter JULIET alone.

JULIET     Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus’ lodging. Such a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,	5
That runaway’s eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms untalk’d-of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,	10
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match
Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
Hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, till strange love grow bold,	15
Think true love acted simple modesty.
Come night, come Romeo, come thou day in night,
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a raven’s back.
Come gentle night, come loving black-brow’d night,	20
Give me my Romeo; and when I shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.	25
O, I have bought the mansion of a love
But not possess’d it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy’d. So tedious is this day
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child that hath new robes	30
And may not wear them. O, here comes my Nurse.
Enter Nurse with cords, wringing her hands.
And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo’s name speaks heavenly eloquence.
Now, Nurse, what news? What hast thou there?
The cords that Romeo bid thee fetch?
NURSE     Ay, ay, the cords.	35
JULIET
Ay me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands?
NURSE     Ah weraday, he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone.
Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s kill’d, he’s dead.
JULIET     Can heaven be so envious?
NURSE     Romeo can,	40
Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo,
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!
JULIET     What devil art thou that dost torment me thus?
This torture should be roar’d in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but ‘Ay’	45
And that bare vowel ‘I’ shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
I am not I if there be such an ‘I’,
Or those eyes shut that makes thee answer ‘Ay’.
If he be slain say ‘Ay’, or if not, ‘No’.	50
Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe.
NURSE     I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes
– God save the mark – here on his manly breast.
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse,
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub’d in blood,	55
All in gore-blood. I swounded at the sight.
JULIET
O break, my heart. Poor bankrupt, break at once.
To prison, eyes, ne’er look on liberty.
Vile earth to earth resign, end motion here,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier.	60
NURSE     O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had.
O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman.
That ever I should live to see thee dead.
JULIET     What storm is this that blows so contrary?
Is Romeo slaughter’d and is Tybalt dead?	65
My dearest cousin and my dearer lord?
Then dreadful trumpet sound the general doom,
For who is living if those two are gone?
NURSE     Tybalt is gone and Romeo banished.
Romeo that kill’d him, he is banished.	70
JULIET
O God! Did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?
NURSE     It did, it did, alas the day, it did.
JULIET     O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face.
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical,	75
Dove-feather’d raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!
Despised substance of divinest show!
Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st!
A damned saint, an honourable villain!
O nature what hadst thou to do in hell	80
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell
In such a gorgeous palace.
NURSE     There’s no trust,	85
No faith, no honesty in men. All perjur’d,
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
Ah, where’s my man? Give me some aqua vitae.
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.
Shame come to Romeo.
JULIET     Blister’d be thy tongue	90
For such a wish. He was not born to shame.
Upon his brow shame is asham’d to sit,
For ’tis a throne where honour may be crown’d
Sole monarch of the universal earth.
O, what a beast was I to chide at him.	95
NURSE
Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin?
JULIET     Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name
When I thy three-hours wife have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?	100
That villain cousin would have kill’d my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring,
Your tributary drops belong to woe
Which you mistaking offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,	105
And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death,
That murder’d me. I would forget it fain,
But O, it presses to my memory	110
Like damned guilty deeds to sinners’ minds.
Tybalt is dead and Romeo – banished.
That ‘banished’, that one word ‘banished’,
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts: Tybalt’s death
Was woe enough, if it had ended there.	115
Or if sour woe delights in fellowship
And needly will be rank’d with other griefs,
Why follow’d not, when she said ‘Tybalt’s dead’,
Thy father or thy mother, nay or both,
Which modern lamentation might have mov’d?	120
But with a rearward following Tybalt’s death,
‘Romeo is banished’: to speak that word
Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All slain, all dead. Romeo is banished,
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,	125
In that word’s death. No words can that woe sound.
Where is my father and my mother, Nurse?
NURSE     Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corse.
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither.
JULIET
Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent	130
When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment.
Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguil’d,
Both you and I, for Romeo is exil’d.
He made you for a highway to my bed,
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.	135
Come, cords, come, Nurse, I’ll to my wedding bed,
And death, not Romeo take my maidenhead.
NURSE     Hie to your chamber. I’ll find Romeo
To comfort you. I wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night.	140
I’ll to him. He is hid at Laurence’ cell.
JULIET     O find him, give this ring to my true knight
And bid him come to take his last farewell.     Exeunt.

3.3     Enter FRIAR LAURENCE.

FRIAR LAURENCE
Romeo, come forth, come forth, thou fearful man.
Affliction is enamour’d of thy parts
And thou art wedded to calamity.
Enter ROMEO.
ROMEO     Father, what news? What is the Prince’s doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand	5
That I yet know not?
FRIAR LAURENCE     Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company.
I bring thee tidings of the Prince’s doom.
ROMEO
What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?
FRIAR LAURENCE
A gentler judgement vanish’d from his lips:	10
Not body’s death but body’s banishment.
ROMEO     Ha! Banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death’.
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death. Do not say ‘banishment’.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hence from Verona art thou banished.	15
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROMEO     There is no world without Verona walls
But purgatory, torture, hell itself;
Hence ‘banished’ is banish’d from the world,
And world’s exile is death. Then ‘banished’	20
Is death, misterm’d. Calling death ‘banished’
Thou cut’st my head off with a golden axe
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
FRIAR LAURENCE     O deadly sin, O rude unthankfulness.
Thy fault our law calls death, but the kind Prince,	25
Taking thy part, hath rush’d aside the law
And turn’d that black word ‘death’ to banishment.
This is dear mercy and thou seest it not.
ROMEO     ’Tis torture and not mercy. Heaven is here
Where Juliet lives, and every cat and dog	30
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven and may look on her,
But Romeo may not. More validity,
More honourable state, more courtship lives
In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize	35
On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand
And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin.
But Romeo may not, he is banished.	40
Flies may do this, but I from this must fly.
They are free men but I am banished.
And say’st thou yet that exile is not death?
Hadst thou no poison mix’d, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean,	45
But ‘banished’ to kill me? ‘Banished’?
O Friar, the damned use that word in hell.
Howling attends it. How hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profess’d,	50
To mangle me with that word ‘banished’?
FRIAR LAURENCE
Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak.
ROMEO     O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
FRIAR LAURENCE
I’ll give thee armour to keep off that word,
Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy,	55
To comfort thee though thou art banished.
ROMEO     Yet ‘banished’? Hang up philosophy.
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a Prince’s doom,
It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more.	60
FRIAR LAURENCE
O, then I see that mad men have no ears.
ROMEO
How should they when that wise men have no eyes?
FRIAR LAURENCE
Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
ROMEO
Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel.
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,	65
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
Doting like me, and like me banished,
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair
And fall upon the ground as I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave. [knock]	70
FRIAR LAURENCE
Arise, one knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself.
ROMEO     Not I, unless the breath of heartsick groans
Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes. [knock]
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hark how they knock. – Who’s there? – Romeo, arise,
Thou wilt be taken. – Stay awhile. – Stand up.	75
[knock]
Run to my study. – By and by. – God’s will,
What simpleness is this? – I come, I come. [knock]
Who knocks so hard?
Whence come you, what’s your will?
NURSE [within]
Let me come in and you shall know my errand.	80
I come from Lady Juliet.
FRIAR LAURENCE     Welcome then.
Enter Nurse.
NURSE     O holy Friar, O, tell me, holy Friar,
Where is my lady’s lord, where’s Romeo?
FRIAR LAURENCE
There on the ground, with his own tears made
drunk.
NURSE     O, he is even in my mistress’ case,	85
Just in her case. O woeful sympathy,
Piteous predicament. Even so lies she,
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.
Stand up, stand up. Stand, and you be a man.
For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand.	90
Why should you fall into so deep an O? [He rises.]
ROMEO     Nurse.
NURSE     Ah sir, ah sir, death’s the end of all.
ROMEO     Spak’st thou of Juliet? How is it with her?
Doth not she think me an old murderer
Now I have stain’d the childhood of our joy	95
With blood remov’d but little from her own?
Where is she? And how doth she? And what says
My conceal’d lady to our cancell’d love?
NURSE     O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps,
And now falls on her bed, and then starts up,	100
And Tybalt calls, and then on Romeo cries,
And then down falls again.
ROMEO     As if that name,
Shot from the deadly level of a gun,
Did murder her, as that name’s cursed hand
Murder’d her kinsman. O, tell me, Friar, tell me,	105
In what vile part of this anatomy
Doth my name lodge? Tell me that I may sack
The hateful mansion.
FRIAR LAURENCE     Hold thy desperate hand.
Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art.
Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote	110
The unreasonable fury of a beast.
Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!
Thou hast amaz’d me. By my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper’d.	115
Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady that in thy life lives,
By doing damned hate upon thyself?
Why rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven and earth?
Since birth, and heaven, and earth all three do meet	120
In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose.
Fie, fie, thou sham’st thy shape, thy love, thy wit,
Which, like a usurer, abound’st in all,
And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.	125
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax
Digressing from the valour of a man;
Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow’d to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,	130
Misshapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask
Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember’d with thine own defence.
What, rouse thee, man. Thy Juliet is alive,	135
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead.
There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew’st Tybalt. There art thou happy.
The law that threaten’d death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile. There art thou happy.	140
A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But like a mishav’d and a sullen wench
Thou pouts upon thy fortune and thy love.
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.	145
Go, get thee to thy love as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber – hence, and comfort her.
But look thou stay not till the Watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua,
Where thou shalt live till we can find a time	150
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the Prince and call thee back,
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou wentst forth in lamentation.
Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady	155
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.
Romeo is coming.
NURSE     O lord, I could have stay’d here all the night
To hear good counsel. O, what learning is.	160
My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.
ROMEO     Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
[Nurse offers to go in and turns again.]
NURSE     Here sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.     Exit.
ROMEO     How well my comfort is reviv’d by this.	165
FRIAR LAURENCE
Go hence, good night, and here stands all your state:
Either be gone before the Watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguis’d from hence.
Sojourn in Mantua. I’ll find out your man,
And he shall signify from time to time	170
Every good hap to you that chances here.
Give me thy hand. ’Tis late. Farewell. Good night.
ROMEO     But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief so brief to part with thee.
Farewell.     Exeunt.	175

3.4     Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET and PARIS.

CAPULET     Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily
That we have had no time to move our daughter.
Look you, she lov’d her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
And so did I. Well, we were born to die.
’Tis very late. She’ll not come down tonight.	5
I promise you, but for your company,
I would have been abed an hour ago.
PARIS     These times of woe afford no times to woo.
Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter.
LADY CAPULET
I will, and know her mind early tomorrow.	10
Tonight she’s mew’d up to her heaviness.
[Paris offers to go in and Capulet calls him again.]
CAPULET     Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child’s love. I think she will be rul’d
In all respects by me; nay, more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,	15
Acquiant her here of my son Paris’ love,
And bid her – mark you me? – on Wednesday next –
But soft – what day is this?
PARIS     Monday, my lord.
CAPULET
Monday! Ha ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon.
A Thursday let it be, a’ Thursday, tell her,	20
She shall be married to this noble earl.
Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?
We’ll keep no great ado – a friend or two.
For, hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
It may be thought we held him carelessly,	25
Being our kinsman, if we revel much.
Therefore we’ll have some half a dozen friends
And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
PARIS
My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.
CAPULET     Well, get you gone. A’ Thursday be it then.	30
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day.
Farewell, my lord. – Light to my chamber, ho!
Afore me, it is so very late that we
May call it early by and by. Good night.     Exeunt.	35

3.5     Enter ROMEO and JULIET aloft at the window.

JULIET     Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale and not the lark
That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear.
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.	5
ROMEO     It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.	10
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
JULIET     Yond light is not daylight, I know it, I.
It is some meteor that the sun exhales
To be to thee this night a torchbearer
And light thee on thy way to Mantua.	15
Therefore stay yet: thou need’st not to be gone.
ROMEO     Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death,
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye,
’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow.	20
Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads.
I have more care to stay than will to go.
Come death, and welcome. Juliet wills it so.
How is’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.	25
JULIET     It is, it is. Hie hence, begone, away.
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division.
This doth not so, for she divideth us.	30
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes.
O, now I would they had chang’d voices too,
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.
O now be gone, more light and light it grows.	35
ROMEO
More light and light: more dark and dark our woes.
Enter Nurse hastily.
NURSE     Madam.
JULIET     Nurse?
NURSE     Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
The day is broke, be wary, look about.     Exit.	40
JULIET     Then, window, let day in and let life out.
ROMEO     Farewell, farewell, one kiss and I’ll descend.
[He goes down.]
JULIET
Art thou gone so? Love, lord, ay husband, friend,
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
For in a minute there are many days.	45
O, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo.
ROMEO     Farewell.
I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.	50
JULIET     O think’st thou we shall ever meet again?
ROMEO     I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our times to come.
JULIET     O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,	55
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
ROMEO     And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu.     Exit.
JULIET     O Fortune, Fortune! All men call thee fickle;	60
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, Fortune,
For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.
Enter LADY CAPULET.
LADY CAPULET     Ho, daughter, are you up?
JULIET     Who is’t that calls? It is my lady mother.	65
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom’d cause procures her hither?
[She goeth down from the window.]
LADY CAPULET     Why, how now Juliet?
Enter JULIET.
JULIET     Madam, I am not well.
LADY CAPULET
Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?	70
And if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.
Therefore have done: some grief shows much of love,
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
JULIET     Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
LADY CAPULET
So shall you feel the loss but not the friend	75
Which you weep for.
JULIET     Feeling so the loss,
I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
LADY CAPULET
Well, girl, thou weepst not so much for his death
As that the villain lives which slaughter’d him.
JULIET     What villain, madam?
LADY CAPULET     That same villain Romeo.	80
JULIET     Villain and he be many miles asunder.
God pardon him. I do with all my heart.
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
LADY CAPULET
That is because the traitor murderer lives.
JULIET
Ay madam, from the reach of these my hands.	85
Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death.
LADY CAPULET
We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.
Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish’d runagate doth live,
Shall give him such an unaccustom’d dram	90
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company;
And then I hope thou wilt be satisfied.
JULIET     Indeed I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him – dead –
Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex’d.	95
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it –
That Romeo should upon receipt thereof
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him nam’d, and cannot come to him	100
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that hath slaughter’d him.
LADY CAPULET
Find thou the means and I’ll find such a man.
But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
JULIET     And joy comes well in such a needy time.	105
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
LADY CAPULET
Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
One who to put thee from thy heaviness
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expects not, nor I look’d not for.	110
JULIET     Madam, in happy time. What day is that?
LADY CAPULET
Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn
The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.	115
JULIET     Now by Saint Peter’s Church, and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
Ere he that should be husband comes to woo.
I pray you tell my lord and father, madam,	120
I will not marry yet. And when I do, I swear
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed.
LADY CAPULET
Here comes your father, tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.	125
Enter CAPULET and Nurse.
CAPULET
When the sun sets the earth doth drizzle dew,
But for the sunset of my brother’s son
It rains downright.
How now, a conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body	130
Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind.
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears. The bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood, the winds thy sighs,
Who raging with thy tears and they with them,	135
Without a sudden calm will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife?
Have you deliver’d to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET
Ay sir, but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave.	140
CAPULET
Soft. Take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bride?	145
JULIET
Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
Proud can I never be of what I hate,
But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
CAPULET
How, how, how, how? Chopp’d logic? What is this?
‘Proud’ and ‘I thank you’ and ‘I thank you not’	150
And yet ‘not proud’? Mistress minion you,
Thank me no thankings nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints ‘gainst Thursday next
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.	155
Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!
LADY CAPULET     Fie, fie. What, are you mad?
JULIET     Good father, I beseech you on my knees.
[She kneels down.]
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
CAPULET
Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!	160
I tell thee what – get thee to church a’ Thursday
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;	165
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hilding.
NURSE     God in heaven bless her.
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
CAPULET
And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue,	170
Good Prudence! Smatter with your gossips, go.
NURSE     I speak no treason.
CAPULET     O God ‘i’ good e’en!
NURSE     May not one speak?
CAPULET     Peace, you mumbling fool!
Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl,
For here we need it not.
LADY CAPULET     You are too hot.	175
CAPULET
God’s bread, it makes me mad! Day, night, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match’d. And having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful and nobly lign’d,	180
Stuff ‘d, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion’d as one’s thought would wish a man –
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune’s tender,
To answer ‘I’ll not wed, I cannot love,	185
I am too young, I pray you pardon me!’
But, and you will not wed, I’ll pardon you!
Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.
Look to’t, think on’t, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near. Lay hand on heart. Advise.	190
And you be mine I’ll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang! Beg! Starve! Die in the streets!
For by my soul I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
Trust to’t, bethink you. I’ll not be forsworn.     Exit.	195
JULIET     Is there no pity sitting in the clouds
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me not away,
Delay this marriage for a month, a week,
Or if you do not, make the bridal bed	200
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
LADY CAPULET
Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.     Exit.
JULIET     O God, O Nurse, how shall this be prevented?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven.	205
How shall that faith return again to earth
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? Comfort me, counsel me.
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself.	210
What sayst thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, Nurse.
NURSE     Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish’d, and all the world to nothing
That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you.
Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.	215
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the County.
O, he’s a lovely gentleman.
Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye	220
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first; or, if it did not,
Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were
As living here and you no use of him.	225
JULIET     Speakest thou from thy heart?
NURSE     And from my soul too, else beshrew them both.
JULIET     Amen.
NURSE     What?
JULIET	230
Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeas’d my father, to Laurence’ cell,
To make confession and to be absolv’d.
NURSE     Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.     Exit.
JULIET     Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend,	235
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath prais’d him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor.
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.	240
I’ll to the Friar to know his remedy.
If all else fail, myself have power to die.     Exit.

4.1     Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS.

FRIAR LAURENCE
On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
PARIS     My father Capulet will have it so,
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
FRIAR LAURENCE
You say you do not know the lady’s mind.
Uneven is the course. I like it not.	5
PARIS     Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
And therefore have I little talk’d of love,
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she do give her sorrow so much sway,	10
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
To stop the inundation of her tears
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.
Now do you know the reason of this haste.	15
FRIAR LAURENCE
I would I knew not why it should be slow’d –
Look sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
Enter JULIET.
PARIS     Happily met, my lady and my wife.
JULIET     That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PARIS     That may be, must be, love, on Thursday next.	20
JULIET     What must be, shall be.
FRIAR LAURENCE     That’s a certain text.
PARIS     Come you to make confession to this father?
JULIET     To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS     Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET     I will confess to you that I love him.	25
PARIS     So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.
JULIET     If I do so, it will be of more price
Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
PARIS     Poor soul, thy face is much abus’d with tears.
JULIET     The tears have got small victory by that,	30
For it was bad enough before their spite.
PARIS
Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.
JULIET     That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
PARIS     Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander’d it.	35
JULIET     It may be so, for it is not mine own. –
Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
FRIAR LAURENCE
My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now. –
My lord, we must entreat the time alone.	40
PARIS     God shield I should disturb devotion.
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye;
Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.     Exit.
JULIET     O shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help!	45
FRIAR LAURENCE     O Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It strains me past the compass of my wits.
I hear thou must – and nothing may prorogue it –
On Thursday next be married to this County.
JULIET     Tell me not, Friar, that thou hearest of this,	50
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.
If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I’ll help it presently.
God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;	55
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s seal’d,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
Therefore, out of thy long-experienc’d time	60
Give me some present counsel, or behold:
’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honour bring.	65
Be not so long to speak. I long to die
If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.	70
If, rather than to marry County Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop’st with death himself to scape from it.	75
And if thou dar’st, I’ll give thee remedy.
JULIET
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of any tower,
Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears,	80
Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house
O’ercover’d quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud –	85
Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble –
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain’d wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow;	90
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone.
Let not the Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilling liquor drink thou off;
When presently through all thy veins shall run	95
A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:
No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest,
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To wanny ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall	100
Like death when he shuts up the day of life.
Each part depriv’d of supple government
Shall stiff and stark and cold appear, like death,
And in this borrow’d likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours	105
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou, dead.
Then as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes, uncover’d on the bier	110
Thou shall be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift
And hither shall he come, and he and I	115
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua,
And this shall free thee from this present shame,
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valour in the acting it.	120
JULIET     Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Hold. Get you gone. Be strong and prosperous
In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
To Mantua with my letters to thy lord.
JULIET
Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.	125
Farewell, dear father.     Exeunt.

4.2     Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, Nurse and two or three Servingmen.

CAPULET     So many guests invite as here are writ.
Exit Servingman.
Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.
SERVINGMAN
You shall have none ill, sir, for I’ll try if they can lick
their fingers.
CAPULET     How! Canst thou try them so?	5
SERVINGMAN
Marry sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own
fingers; therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes
not with me.
CAPULET     Exit Servingman.
We shall be much unfurnish’d for this time.	10
What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence?
NURSE     Ay, forsooth.
CAPULET     Well, he may chance to do some good on her.
A peevish self-will’d harlotry it is.
Enter JULIET
NURSE
See where she comes from shrift with merry look.	15
CAPULET
How now, my headstrong: where have you been gadding?
JULIET     Where I have learnt me to repent the sin
Of disobedient opposition
To you and your behests, and am enjoin’d
By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here,	20
To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you.
Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you.
[She kneels down.]
CAPULET     Send for the County, go tell him of this.
I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.
JULIET     I met the youthful lord at Laurence’ cell,	25
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.
CAPULET     Why, I am glad on’t. This is well. Stand up.
This is as’t should be. Let me see the County.
Ay, marry. Go, I say, and fetch him hither.	30
Now afore God, this reverend holy Friar,
All our whole city is much bound to him.
JULIET     Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?	35
LADY CAPULET
No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.
CAPULET
Go, Nurse, go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.
Exeunt Juliet and Nurse.
LADY CAPULET     We shall be short in our provision,
’Tis now near night.
CAPULET     Tush I will stir about,
And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.	40
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.
I’ll not to bed tonight, let me alone.
I’ll play the housewife for this once. – What ho! –
They are all forth. Well, I will walk myself
To County Paris, to prepare up him	45
Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim’d.	Exeunt.

4.3     Enter JULIET and NURSE.

JULIET     Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle Nurse,
I pray thee leave me to myself tonight,
For I have need of many orisons
To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
Which, well thou know’st, is cross and full of sin.	5
Enter LADY CAPULET.
LADY CAPULET
What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?
JULIET     No madam, we have cull’d such necessaries
As are behoveful for our state tomorrow.
So please you, let me now be left alone
And let the Nurse this night sit up with you,	10
For I am sure you have your hands full all
In this so sudden business.
LADY CAPULET     Good night.
Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need.
Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.
JULIET
Farewell. God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins	15
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I’ll call them back again to comfort me.
– Nurse! – What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial.	20
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
No! No! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
[She lays down a knife.]
What if it be a poison which the Friar
Subtly hath minister’d to have me dead,	25
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour’d,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,	30
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point!
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?	35
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night
Together with the terror of the place,
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle
Where for this many hundred years the bones	40
Of all my buried ancestors are pack’d,
Where bloody Tybalt yet but green in earth
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort –
Alack, alack! Is it not like that I	45
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad –
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears,	50
And madly play with my forefathers’ joints,
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone
As with a club dash out my desperate brains?
O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost	55
Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s point! Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here’s drink! I drink to thee!
[She falls upon her bed within the curtains.]

4.4     Enter LADY CAPULET and Nurse.

LADY CAPULET
Hold, take these keys and fetch more spices, Nurse.
NURSE     They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
Enter CAPULET.
CAPULET
Come, stir, stir, stir, the second cock hath crow’d!
The curfew bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock.
Look to the bak’d meats, good Angelica:	5
Spare not for cost.
NURSE     Go, you cot-quean, go,
Get you to bed. Faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow
For this night’s watching.
CAPULET
No, not a whit. What, I have watch’d ere now
All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.	10
LADY CAPULET
Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;
But I will watch you from such watching now.
Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.
CAPULET     A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!
Enter three or four Servingmen with spits and logs and baskets.
Now fellow, what is there?
1 SERVINGMAN
Things for the cook, sir, but I know not what.
CAPULET     Make haste, make haste!
Exit First Servingman.
– Sirrah, fetch drier logs!	15
Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.
2 SERVINGMAN     I have a head, sir, that will find out logs
And never trouble Peter for the matter.
CAPULET
Mass and well said! A merry whoreson, ha.
Thou shalt be loggerhead!Exit Second Servingman.
– Good faith! ’Tis day!	20
[Play music.]
The County will be here with music straight,
For so he said he would. I hear him near.
Nurse! Wife! What ho! What, Nurse I say!
Enter Nurse.
Go waken Juliet, go, and trim her up.
I’ll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste,	25
Make haste! The bridegroom he is come already.
Make haste I say.     Exeunt Capulet and servingmen.

4.5

[Nurse goes to curtains.]
NURSE
Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.
Why, lamb, why, lady, fie! You slug-abed!
Why, love I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride!
What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now.
Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,	5
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little! God forgive me!
Marry and amen. How sound is she asleep!
I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the County take you in your bed,	10
He’ll fright you up, i’faith. Will it not be?
What, dress’d, and in your clothes, and down again?
I must needs wake you. Lady! Lady! Lady!
Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead!
O weraday that ever I was born.	15
Some aqua vitae, ho! My lord! My lady!
Enter LADY CAPULET.
LADY CAPULET     What noise is here?
NURSE     O lamentable day!
LADY CAPULET     What is the matter?
NURSE     Look, look! O heavy day!
LADY CAPULET     O me, O me! My child, my only life.
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.	20
Help, help! Call help!
Enter CAPULET.
CAPULET
For shame, bring Juliet forth, her lord is come.
NURSE
She’s dead, deceas’d! She’s dead! Alack the day!
LADY CAPULET
Alack the day! She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!
CAPULET     Ha! Let me see her. Out alas. She’s cold,	25
Her blood is settled and her joints are stiff.
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
NURSE     O lamentable day!
LADY CAPULET     O woeful time!	30
CAPULET
Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail
Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS and Musicians.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
CAPULET     Ready to go, but never to return.
O son, the night before thy wedding day	35
Hath Death lain with thy wife. There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir.
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die,
And leave him all: life, living, all is Death’s.	40
PARIS     Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?
LADY CAPULET
Accurs’d, unhappy, wretched, hateful day.
Most miserable hour that e’er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage.	45
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,
And cruel Death hath catch’d it from my sight.
NURSE     O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day.
Most lamentable day. Most woeful day	50
That ever, ever I did yet behold.
O day, O day, O day, O hateful day.
Never was seen so black a day as this.
O woeful day, O woeful day.
PARIS     Beguil’d, divorced, wronged, spited, slain.	55
Most detestable Death, by thee beguil’d,
By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown.
O love! O life! Not life, but love in death!
CAPULET     Despis’d, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d.
Uncomfortable time, why cam’st thou now	60
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child, O child! My soul and not my child,
Dead art thou. Alack, my child is dead,
And with my child my joys are buried.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Peace, ho, for shame. Confusion’s cure lives not	65
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid, now heaven hath all,
And all the better is it for the maid.
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.	70
The most you sought was her promotion,
For ’twas your heaven she should be advanc’d,
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc’d
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love you love your child so ill	75
That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
She’s not well married that lives married long,
But she’s best married that dies married young.
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,	80
All in her best array bear her to church.
For though fond nature bids us all lament,
Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.
CAPULET     All things that we ordained festival
Turn from their office to black funeral:	85
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
And all things change them to the contrary.	90
FRIAR LAURENCE
Sir, go you in, and madam, go with him,
And go, Sir Paris. Every one prepare
To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
The heavens do lour upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.	95
Exeunt all but the Nurse and Musicians, casting
rosemary on Juliet and shutting the curtains.
1 MUSICIAN     Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
NURSE     Honest good fellows, ah put up, put up,
For well you know this is a pitiful case.
1 MUSICIAN     Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
Exit Nurse.
Enter PETER.
PETER     Musicians, O musicians, ‘Heart’s ease’, ‘Heart’s	100
ease’! O, and you will have me live, play ‘Heart’s ease’.
1 MUSICIAN     Why ‘Heart’s ease’?
PETER     O musicians, because my heart itself plays ‘My
heart is full’. O play me some merry dump to comfort
me.	105
1 MUSICIAN     Not a dump we! ’Tis no time to play now.
PETER     You will not then?
1 MUSICIAN     No.
PETER     I will then give it you soundly.
1 MUSICIAN     What will you give us?	110
PETER     No money, on my faith, but the gleek! I will give
you the minstrel.
1 MUSICIAN     Then will I give you the serving-creature.
PETER     Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dagger on
your pate. I will carry no crotchets. I’ll re you, I’ll fa	115
you. Do you note me?
1 MUSICIAN     And you re us and fa us, you note us.
2 MUSICIAN     Pray you put up your dagger and put out
your wit.
PETER     Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat	120
you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger.
Answer me like men.
‘When griping griefs the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound’ –	125
Why ‘silver sound’? Why ‘music with her silver
sound’? What say you, Simon Catling?
1 MUSICIAN
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
PETER     Prates. What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
2 MUSICIAN     I say ‘silver sound’ because musicians	130
sound for silver.
PETER     Prates too. What say you, James Soundpost?
3 MUSICIAN     Faith, I know not what to say.
PETER     O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer. I will say
for you. It is ‘music with her silver sound’ because	135
musicians have no gold for sounding.
‘Then music with her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.’Exit.
1 MUSICIAN     What a pestilent knave is this same.
2 MUSICIAN     Hang him, Jack. Come, we’ll in here, tarry	140
for the mourners, and stay dinner.     Exeunt.

5.1     Enter ROMEO.

ROMEO     If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne
And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.	5
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead –
Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think! –
And breath’d such life with kisses in my lips
That I reviv’d and was an emperor.
Ah me, how sweet is love itself possess’d	10
When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy.
Enter BALTHASAR, Romeo’s man, booted.
News from Verona! How now, Balthasar,
Dost thou not bring me letters from the Friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How doth my Juliet? That I ask again,	15
For nothing can be ill if she be well.
BALTHASAR
Then she is well and nothing can be ill.
Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives.
I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault	20
And presently took post to tell it you.
O pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
ROMEO     Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!
Thou know’st my lodging. Get me ink and paper,	25
And hire posthorses. I will hence tonight.
BALTHASAR     I do beseech you sir, have patience.

Your looks are pale and wild and do import
Some misadventure.
ROMEO     Tush, thou art deceiv’d.
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do.	30
Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?
BALTHASAR     No, my good lord.
ROMEO     No matter. Get thee gone.
And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight.
Exit Balthasar.
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.
Let’s see for means. O mischief thou art swift	35
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.
I do remember an apothecary –
And hereabouts ‘a dwells – which late I noted
In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples. Meagre were his looks,	40
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones,
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff ‘d, and other skins
Of ill-shap’d fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,	45
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses
Were thinly scatter’d to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said,
‘And if a man did need a poison now,	50
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him’.
O, this same thought did but forerun my need,
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house.	55
Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut.
What ho! Apothecary!
Enter Apothecary.
APOTHECARY     Who calls so loud?
ROMEO     Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor.
Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear	60
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead,
And that the trunk may be discharg’d of breath
As violently as hasty powder fir’d
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.	65
APOTHECARY
Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law
Is death to any he that utters them.
ROMEO     Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
And fear’st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,	70
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back.
The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
APOTHECARY     My poverty, but not my will consents.	75
ROMEO     I pay thy poverty and not thy will.
APOTHECARY     Put this in any liquid thing you will
And drink it off and if you had the strength
Of twenty men it would dispatch you straight.
ROMEO
There is thy gold – worse poison to men’s souls,	80
Doing more murder in this loathsome world
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
Come, cordial, and not poison, go with me	85
To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.     Exeunt.

5.2 Enter FRIAR JOHN. FRIAR JOHN Holy Franciscan Friar, Brother, ho!

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE.
FRIAR LAURENCE
This same should be the voice of Friar John.
Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
FRIAR JOHN     Going to find a barefoot brother out,	5
One of our order, to associate me,
Here in this city visiting the sick,
And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,	10
Seal’d up the doors and would not let us forth,
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay’d.
FRIAR LAURENCE     Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
FRIAR JOHN     I could not send it – here it is again –
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,	15
So fearful were they of infection.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice but full of charge,
Of dear import, and the neglecting it
May do much danger. Friar John, go hence,	20
Get me an iron crow and bring it straight
Unto my cell.
FRIAR JOHN     Brother, I’ll go and bring it thee.      Exit.
FRIAR LAURENCE     Now must I to the monument alone.
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake.
She will beshrew me much that Romeo	25
Hath had no notice of these accidents,
But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come.
Poor living corse, clos’d in a dead man’s tomb.     Exit.

5.3 Enter PARIS and his Page, with flowers and sweet water.

PARIS     Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof.
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
Under yond yew trees lay thee all along,
Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,	5
Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,
But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me
As signal that thou hear’st something approach.
Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee. Go.
PAGE     I am almost afraid to stand alone	10
Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure.
[Retires. Paris strews the tomb with flowers.]
PARIS
Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.
O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
Or wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans.	15
The obsequies that I for thee will keep
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
[Page whistles.]
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way tonight,
To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?	20
What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile.
[Paris retires.]
Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR with a torch, a mattock and a crow of iron.
ROMEO     Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee,	25
Whate’er thou hear’st or seest, stand all aloof
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death
Is partly to behold my lady’s face
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger	30
A precious ring, a ring that I must use
In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone.
But if thou jealous dost return to pry
In what I farther shall intend to do,
By heaven I will tear thee joint by joint,	35
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.
The time and my intents are savage-wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
BALTHASAR     I will be gone, sir, and not trouble ye.	40
ROMEO
So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.
Live, and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.
BALTHASAR     For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout.
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
[Balthasar retires.]
ROMEO     Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death	45
Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.
[Romeo opens the tomb.]
PARIS     This is that banish’d haughty Montague
That murder’d my love’s cousin – with which grief	50
It is supposed the fair creature died –
And here is come to do some villainous shame
To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague.
Can vengeance be pursu’d further than death?	55
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.
Obey, and go with me, for thou must die.
ROMEO     I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.
Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone.	60
Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
Put not another sin upon my head
By urging me to fury. O be gone.
By heaven I love thee better than myself,
For I come hither arm’d against myself.	65
Stay not, be gone, live, and hereafter say
A mad man’s mercy bid thee run away.
PARIS     I do defy thy conjuration
And apprehend thee for a felon here.
ROMEO     Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!	70
[They fight.]
PAGE     O Lord, they fight! I will go call the Watch.
Exit Page.
PARIS     O, I am slain! If thou be merciful,
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Paris dies.]
ROMEO     In faith I will. Let me peruse this face.
Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!	75
What said my man, when my betossed soul
Did not attend him, as we rode? I think
He told me Paris should have married Juliet.
Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?
Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,	80
To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book.
I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.
A grave? O no, a lantern, slaughter’d youth.
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes	85
This vault a feasting presence, full of light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr’d.
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! Which their keepers call
A lightning before death. O how may I	90
Call this a lightning? O my love, my wife,
Death that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
Thou art not conquer’d. Beauty’s ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,	95
And Death’s pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy?	100
Forgive me, cousin. Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
That unsubstantial Death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?	105
For fear of that I still will stay with thee,
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again. Here, here, will I remain
With worms that are thy chambermaids. O here
Will I set up my everlasting rest	110
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last.
Arms, take your last embrace! And lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing Death.	115
Come, bitter conduct, come unsavoury guide,
Thou desperate pilot now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark.
Here’s to my love! [He drinks.] O true apothecary,
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.	120
[He falls.]
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE with lantern, crow and spade.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Saint Francis be my speed. How oft tonight
Have my old feet stumbled at graves. Who’s there?
BALTHASAR
Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Bliss be upon you. Tell me, good my friend,
What torch is yond that vainly lends his light	125
To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,
It burneth in the Capels’ monument.
BALTHASAR
It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,
One that you love.
FRIAR LAURENCE     Who is it?
BALTHASAR               Romeo.
FRIAR LAURENCE     How long hath he been there?
BALTHASAR     Full half an hour.	130
FRIAR LAURENCE   Go with me to the vault.
BALTHASAR     I dare not, sir.
My master knows not but I am gone hence,
And fearfully did menace me with death
If I did stay to look on his intents.
FRIAR LAURENCE
Stay then, I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.	135
O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.
BALTHASAR     As I did sleep under this yew tree here
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.
FRIAR LAURENCE               Romeo!
[Friar stoops and looks on the blood and weapons.]
Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains	140
The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To lie discolour’d by this place of peace?
Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
And steep’d in blood? Ah what an unkind hour	145
Is guilty of this lamentable chance?
The lady stirs.
JULIET rises.
JULIET     O comfortable Friar, where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?	150
FRIAR LAURENCE
I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,	155
And Paris too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee
Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.
Stay not to question, for the Watch is coming.
Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.
JULIET     Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.	160
Exit Friar Laurence.
What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
O churl. Drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them	165
To make me die with a restorative. [She kisses him.]
Thy lips are warm!
WATCHMAN [within]     Lead, boy. Which way?
JULIET     Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger.
This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.
[She stabs herself and falls.]
Enter Page and Watchmen.
PAGE
This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn.	170
1 WATCHMAN
The ground is bloody. Search about the churchyard.
Go, some of you: whoe’er you find, attach.
Exeunt some watchmen.
Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain this two days buried.	175
Go tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets.
Raise up the Montagues. Some others search.
Exeunt some watchmen.
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry.	180
Enter several Watchmen with BALTHASAR.
2 WATCHMAN   Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the churchyard.
1 WATCHMAN
Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.
Enter another Watchman with FRIAR LAURENCE.
3 WATCHMAN
Here is a friar that trembles, sighs and weeps.
We took this mattock and this spade from him	185
As he was coming from this churchyard’s side.
1 WATCHMAN   A great suspicion. Stay the friar too.
Enter the PRINCE and attendants.
PRINCE     What misadventure is so early up,
That calls our person from our morning rest?
Enter CAPULET and LADY CAPULET and servants.
CAPULET     What should it be that is so shriek’d abroad?	190
LADY CAPULET     O, the people in the street cry ‘Romeo’,
Some ‘Juliet’, and some ‘Paris’, and all run
With open outcry toward our monument.
PRINCE     What fear is this which startles in our ears?
1 WATCHMAN
Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,	195
And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
Warm, and new kill’d.
PRINCE
Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
1 WATCHMAN
Here is a friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man,
With instruments upon them fit to open	200
These dead men’s tombs.
CAPULET
O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
This dagger hath mista’en, for lo, his house
Is empty on the back of Montague,
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom.	205
LADY CAPULET
O me! This sight of death is as a bell
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
Enter MONTAGUE and servants.
PRINCE     Come, Montague, for thou art early up
To see thy son and heir now early down.
MONTAGUE     Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.	210
Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath.
What further woe conspires against mine age?
PRINCE     Look, and thou shalt see.
MONTAGUE     O thou untaught! What manners is in this,
To press before thy father to a grave?	215
PRINCE     Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while
Till we can clear these ambiguities
And know their spring, their head, their true descent,
And then will I be general of your woes
And lead you, even to death. Meantime forbear,	220
And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
FRIAR LAURENCE     I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direful murder.	225
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excus’d.
PRINCE     Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
FRIAR LAURENCE
I will be brief, for my short date of breath
Is not so long as is a tedious tale.	230
Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.
I married them, and their stol’n marriage day
Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death
Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from this city;	235
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin’d.
You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
Betroth’d and would have married her perforce
To County Paris. Then comes she to me
And with wild looks bid me devise some mean	240
To rid her from this second marriage,
Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
Then gave I her – so tutor’d by my art –
A sleeping potion, which so took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her	245
The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo
That he should hither come as this dire night
To help to take her from her borrow’d grave,
Being the time the potion’s force should cease.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,	250
Was stay’d by accident, and yesternight
Return’d my letter back. Then all alone
At the prefixed hour of her waking
Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault,
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell	255
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo.
But when I came, some minute ere the time
Of her awakening, here untimely lay
The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth	260
And bear this work of heaven with patience,
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb
And she, too desperate, would not go with me
But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
All this I know; and to the marriage	265
Her Nurse is privy; and if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrific’d some hour before his time
Unto the rigour of severest law.
PRINCE     We still have known thee for a holy man.	270
Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say to this?
BALTHASAR
I brought my master news of Juliet’s death,
And then in post he came from Mantua
To this same place, to this same monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father	275
And threaten’d me with death, going in the vault,
If I departed not and left him there.
PRINCE     Give me the letter, I will look on it.
Where is the County’s Page that rais’d the Watch?
Sirrah, what made your master in this place?	280
PAGE     He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave
And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.
Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb
And by and by my master drew on him,
And then I ran away to call the Watch.	285
PRINCE     This letter doth make good the Friar’s words:
Their course of love, the tidings of her death,
And here he writes that he did buy a poison
Of a poor pothecary, and therewithal
Came to this vault to die and lie with Juliet.	290
Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague,
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love;
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d.	295
CAPULET     O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
MONTAGUE     But I can give thee more,
For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
That whiles Verona by that name is known,	300
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
CAPULET     As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,
Poor sacrifices of our enmity.
PRINCE     A glooming peace this morning with it brings:	305
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished,
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.     Exeunt.	310